Senate poised to hand Obama big victory on negotiating trade WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress was poised to hand President Barack Obama a major victory on trade Wednesday, with the Senate set to approve "fast track" negotiating authority and House Democrats dropping their opposition to a part of the legislative package. The developments represented a remarkable turnabout for an initiative that House Democrats nearly killed this month. Opening Senate debate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent Obama an...

US won’t threaten to prosecute hostages’ families for ransomWASHINGTON — Softening longstanding policy, the Obama administration will tell families of Americans held by terror groups that they can communicate with captors and even pay ransom without fear of prosecution. The shift comes as part of a broad review of U.S. hostage guidelines that will be released Wednesday. President Barack Obama ordered the review last fall after the deaths of Americans held hostage by the Islamic State. The families of s...

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Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington and David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Maryland, contributed to this report.Associated Press

Composer owns plane that crashed, killed pilotVENTURA, Calif. — A plane registered to Oscar-winning “Titanic” composer James Horner crashed in Southern California, but the identity of the pilot who died has not been released. Jay Cooper, an attorney for Horner, said that the plane was one of several owned by the 61-year-old composer and that no one has heard from him since the crash. “It was his plane, and if he wasn’t in it, he would’ve called,” Cooper said Monday night. The Associated P...

Google protects Gmail users from sending regrettable notes SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is making it easier to steer clear of the trouble that can be caused by a misdirected or inappropriate email. An option to cancel the delivery of an email within 30 seconds of hitting the send button is now a standard safeguard in Google's Gmail as part of a settings change made this week. The "undo send" feature had already been available for the past six years in Google's experimental labs, but that required Gmail...

Q&A: What's at stake in Supreme Court gay marriage case WASHINGTON (AP) — Just two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down part of the federal anti-gay marriage law that denied a range of government benefits to legally married same-sex couples. The decision in United States v. Windsor did not address the validity of state marriage bans, but courts across the country, with few exceptions, said its logic compelled them to invalidate state laws that prohibited gay and lesbian couples from marrying. T...

History of the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The shooting deaths of nine people at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, have reignited calls for the Confederate flag flying on the grounds of the Statehouse in Columbia to come down. Rallies are being held, and politicians have joined the chorus of voices calling for its removal — an opinion that has carried political risks in the state in the past. Here's a look at the history of the flag's presence in the s...

Changing tone on Confederate flag follows years of refusal CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — For years, South Carolina lawmakers refused to revisit the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds, saying the law that took it off the dome was a bipartisan compromise, and renewing the debate would unnecessarily expose divisive wounds. But opinions changed within five days of the massacre of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, as a growing tide of Republicans joined the call to remove the battle flag ...

Doctors propose tool to help gauge the value of cancer drugsAssociated Press The pushback against soaring cancer drug prices is gaining steam. A leading doctors group on Monday proposed a formula to help patients decide if a medicine is worth it — what it will cost them and how much good it is likely to do. The move by the American Society of Clinical Oncology is the third recent effort to focus on value in cancer care. Two weeks ago, the European Society for Medical Oncology proposed a similar guide. ...

Police check new lead on escaped prisonersFRIENDSHIP, N.Y. — The search for two killers landed Saturday in New York’s southern tier near the Pennsylvania border, about 350 miles from the prison where they escaped two weeks ago. New York State Police spokesman Beau Duffy said officers were investigating a possible sighting of the prisoners near the Allegany County hamlet of Friendship. He gave no other details. David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped June 6 from the Clinton Correctional F...

Church shooting site to re-open; FBI reviews manifestoCHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A small group of parishioners was allowed inside the bullet-scarred Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church on Saturday, getting a firsthand glimpse of the room where nine people from their congregation were slain. Meanwhile, the FBI said it was investigating a manifesto purportedly written by the suspected gunman, 21-year-old Dylann Roof. The website linked to Roof contained photos of him holding a burning American ...

Obama Asia policy faces toughest test on tradeWASHINGTON (AP) — Critics have long predicted that President Barack Obama's policy to shift America's focus toward Asia is doomed. The legislative battle over his trade agenda could prove the acid test. Legislation to smooth the way for a free-trade pact with 11 other Asia-Pacific nations hit a wall in Congress last week, but was given new life Thursday as the House took a first step to reverse the setback as soon as the July 4 national holida...

Medicare: House calls can help frail seniors and cut costs WASHINGTON (AP) — An X-ray in the living room. A rapid blood test. A peek into pill bottles and refrigerators. The humble house call can accomplish a lot — and now research suggests that tailoring it to some of Medicare's frailest patients can improve their care while cutting costs. Medicare announced Thursday that it saved more than $25 million in the first year of a three-year study to determine the value of home-based primary care for frail...

White man arrested in killing of 9 in historic black church CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A white man was arrested Thursday in the slayings of nine people, including the pastor, at a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston. Dylann Storm Roof, 21, stayed for nearly an hour inside the church Wednesday night before shooting six females and three males at a prayer meeting, Police Chief Greg Mullen said. Roof put up no resistance after a citizen tip led police to his car Thursday morn...

Beachgoers lose limbs in shallow-water shark attacksOAK ISLAND, N.C. — Beachgoers cautiously returned to the ocean Monday after two young people lost limbs in separate, life-threatening shark attacks in the same town in North Carolina. A 12-year-old girl lost her left arm below the elbow and suffered a leg injury Sunday afternoon; then about an hour and 20 minutes later and 2 miles away, a shark bit off the left arm above the elbow of a 16-year-old boy. Both had been swimming about 20 yards off...

Prison worker arrested, accused of aiding 2 NY escapeesDANNEMORA, N.Y. (AP) — A worker at an upstate New York maximum-security prison has been arrested on charges she helped two convicted killers escape, state police said Friday. Fifty-one-year-old Joyce Mitchell was arrested and will be arraigned on the felony charge of first-degree promoting prison contraband and misdemeanor count of fourth-degree criminal facilitation, authorities said. Mitchell is accused of befriending inmates David Sweat and...

All federal employees', retired and former, personnel information allegedly hackedWASHINGTON (AP) — A major union says the cyber theft of employee information is more damaging than it first appeared, asserting that hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for 4 million current and former federal workers. The Obama administration had acknowledged that up to 4 million current and former employees whose information resides in the Office of Personnel Management server are affected by the December cyber breach, b...

Drink mas? Taco Bell to serve alcohol at Chicago locationNEW YORK (AP) — Taco Bell says it will serve beer, wine and “mixed alcohol freezes” at a new location set to open in Chicago this summer. The chain, owned by Yum Brands Inc., says the restaurant will have a new design it’s testing in urban markets. It says the layout has already been launched in South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. A rendering of the design shows a row of lime-green stools along a bar that peers into an open kitchen, fla...

Sister of Josh Duggar says he victimized herNEW YORK — Reality TV star Jessa Duggar told Fox News Channel on Wednesday that she was a victim of her older brother Josh Duggar, who fondled five girls when he was a teenager. Jessa Duggar, featured like her brother in the family’s TLC series, “19 Kids and Counting,” told Fox in an interview conducted in Arkansas on Wednesday that she wanted to defend him. She said allegations he’s a child molester or pedophile are “so overboard and a lie,” ...

China suspected in massive breach of federal personnel dataWASHINGTON (AP) — China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer networks of the U.S. government personnel office and stealing identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers, American officials said Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that data from the Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department had been compromised. "The FBI is conducting an investigation to identif...

Flooded rivers don't faze some Houston-area residentsROSENBERG, Texas (AP) — The seemingly ceaseless rain has ended in North Texas and Oklahoma, but residents in the greater Houston area warily eyed the swollen Brazos River and the skies, which threatened to drop up to 5 additional inches of rain late Saturday afternoon and evening. At least 31 people have been killed in storms that began in Texas and Oklahoma over Memorial Day weekend. Twenty-seven of the deaths have been in Texas alone, and 11...